The Stars Just up the Street by Sue Soltis

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Stars Just up the Street by Sue Soltis Deborah Stevenson, Editor Soltis, Sue The Stars Just up the Street; illus. by Christine Davenier. Candlewick, 2020 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-7636-9834-8 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad 5-8 yrs Mabel loves looking at the stars from her window, and she's intrigued when her grandfather tells her about seeing thousands of stars in the sky in his youth. The girl realizes that light from people's windows and porches might be what's impeding her view, and she embarks on a mission, first going door to door to requesting that people turn their lights off, then asking the mayor to turn off streetlights. Eventually the town gets on board, and every new moon they celebrate by gathering on the hillside to view the newly visible stars. Light pollution is an unusual subject for picture books, and the focus on a small area of change and immediately kid-noticeable result aims the book effectively at young viewers. Unfortunately, it's a fairly facile approach that minimizes both the challenges of and possibilities for a dark-sky program and puts an artificially high bar for success, and there's no additional information provided about light pollution or the dark-sky movement. Davenier's loose-lined, informal ink illustrations are friendly and literally illuminating, with pools of yellow light spilling over the streets and creeping along the horizon. While there's a better book on the topic waiting to be written, this could still be an eye-opening introduction for youngsters to thoughtful pushback against a big manmade change. Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois